Niceguy,
Intel isn't up...but perhaps this report is helping us a little:
Chip sales soar in 1999
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
February 7, 2000, 9:25 a.m. PT
URL: news.cnet.com
NEW YORK--Worldwide sales of semiconductors jumped 18.9 percent to a record $149 billion in 1999, led by growth in all product categories and all regions of the world, an industry trade association reported today.
"With year-end global sales reaching $149 billion, 1999 broke all predictions and industry sales records and was an exceptional year of record growth and productivity for our industry,' said George Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association. In December the SIA said it expected chip sales to grow 21 percent this year, to $174 billion. Sales for 2001 are expected to grow 20 percent, to $209 billion. The semiconductor industry, known for its boom-and-bust cycle, entered a steep downturn in 1996 and began to turn around in the latter part of 1998.
For 1999, the SIA said, sales of flash memory chips increased 83 percent to $4.6 billion, driven by growth in wireless communications. Flash memory does not need power to retain its stored information and is commonly used in smaller electronic devices, such as handheld devices or cell phones.
Sales of DRAM chips--dynamic random-access memory chips--rose 48 percent in 1999 to $20.7 billion due to strong sales of personal computers and network servers, the SIA said. DRAM chips are used in the main memory of personal computers or large computers.
Sales of digital signal processors (DSP), chips that are used to convert sounds into electronic form, rose 25.7 percent to $4.4 billion due to demand for wireless communications applications, the SIA said. In December, Texas Instruments, the world's No. 1 maker of DSP chips, said that by 2010 it would be able to offer the power of today's laptop computer in a device the size of a wristwatch.
DSP chips, flash memory and dedicated telecommunications circuits are expected to lead growth in the semiconductor market. But microprocessors will continue as the largest product line due to the growth rate in personal computers, the SIA said. Semiconductor sales in Japan and the Asia Pacific region snapped back in 1999 from a multiyear slump. Sales in Japan, representing 22 percent of the world total, rose 28.9 percent; sales in the Asia Pacific region, representing 25 percent of the world total increased 26.7 percent.
Sales in the Americas, the largest single world market and representing 30 percent of all chip sales, grew 14.6 percent last year, with sales of chips for personal computers continuing to dominate the market. The rapid growth of Internet use also is propelling demand, the SIA said.
Europe, which accounts for 21 percent of world chip consumption, saw sales grow 8.4 percent last year, boosted by the deregulation of the European telecommunications markets, which sparked a revolution in wireless communications, the SIA said.
Story Copyright ¸ 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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